[VIDEO] Terrified Baby Tortoise Ends up in the Middle of a Busy Elephant Herd

When a little tortoise in South Africa got caught in the middle of a group of elephants, he tried his best to hide. But, he didn’t have a thing to worry about…

A tortoise was minding his own business one day, taking a stroll down a quiet dirt path. When, out of nowhere, a herd of elephants emerged from the bush and headed right towards him!

There was no way the tortoise would be able to outrun an entire pack of elephants and so he retreated into his shell to wait. He just hoped that an elephant didn’t accidentally crush him with his enormous feet.

Miraculously, most of the elephants seemed to be mindful of the little tortoise’s presence and cautiously stepped over him.

One baby elephant even nudged him a bit with her trunk, perhaps trying to get him to play with her? The tortoise, however, was not interested!

“Interestingly enough, the elephants seemed to be aware of the tortoise’s presence and were very careful to step over the tortoise or only bump him gently with their giant feet,” Kruger Sightings wrote in a video about the encounter.

The herd has paused in their trek for a drink of water right where the tortoise was taking shelter… and there was a lot of chaos and excited stomping feet all around the scared little guy.

Somehow, though, every single elephant managed to avoid stepping on him.

“For a minute or so, the herd was standing over the tortoise, having a good time in the water,” Kruger Sightings wrote. “But luckily, the elephants soon moved a bit upstream and the tortoise immediately saw an escape path, letting him flee for his life back to the safety of the surrounding bush.”

While the entire stampede didn’t last long, it was a bit of a close call for the tortoise.